Month: January 2017

Having just celebrated her 26th birthday in 1976 California, Dana, an African-American woman, is suddenly and inexplicably wrenched through time into antebellum Maryland. After saving a drowning white boy there, she finds herself staring into the barrel of a shotgun and is transported back to the present just in time to save her life. During numerous such time-defying episodes with the same young man, she realizes the challenge she’s been given: to protect this young slaveholder until he can father her own great-grandmother.

Kateryn Parr, a thirty-year-old widow in a secret affair with a new lover, has no choice when a man old enough to be her father who has buried four wives – King Henry VIII – commands her to marry him.

Kateryn has no doubt about the danger she faces: the previous queen lasted sixteen months, the one before barely half a year. But Henry adores his new bride and Kateryn’s trust in him grows as she unites the royal family, creates a radical study circle at the heart of the court, and rules the kingdom as regent.

But is this enough to keep her safe? A leader of religious reform and a published author, Kateryn stands out as an independent woman with a mind of her own. But she cannot save the Protestants, under threat for their faith, and Henry’s dangerous gaze turns on her.The traditional churchmen and rivals for power accuse her of heresy – the punishment is death by fire and the king’s name is on the warrant…

This is my first update post, mostly to just remind myself that I am trying to fill out all thirty six squares on this bingo. I’m taking part in #Diverseathon this January and that is going well-ish. I’ve finished one book and started the second so there’s that.

In January, I read Kindred by Octavia E. Butler and Rejected Princesses by Jason Porath. Venom and Vanilla by Shannon Mayer also had some bisexual/pansexual side characters in it but no labels were used and it wasn’t any of the main characters so it won’t be included on this.

Rejected Princesses – Diverse Non-Fiction. Short passages on women around the world who don’t quite fit into the Disney Princess ideal but are still awesome and terrifying. A very enjoyable book.

Kindred – MC of Colour in SFF/Black MC (Own Voices)/POC on the Cover. This book could fit any of these categories so as I read on, I’ll decide which one it fits in best. For the moment, I’ll go with Black MC (Own Voices).

If I finish Twelve Years a Slave for #Diverseathon then that’ll be Diverse Non-Fiction as well. If I finish Tale of Genji (all 700 pages of it), then I’ll put that as West Asian Setting and it’ll be in my February update.

I found a great post for #DiverseBingo which includes list of recommendations. Here ohbookish gives a list of recs for the first line of the Bingo card. I’m definitely going to be checking some of them out.

So stress over my visa meant I wasn’t feeling up to reading or doing blog posts or writing. It wasn’t fun, so now I’m getting back into the swing of things with a readathon! I saw this from one of the Booktubers I follow, squibblereads (her video here), and it struck me as a good idea.

As you can see by the video above, this is a diverse readathon which runs 22nd January-29th January, so Sunday to Sunday. It has no challenges, but you make a concentrated effort to read more diversely. And this month the readathon is focusing on #OwnVoices, which by sheer luck more than anything else, I have in my TBR. Continue reading “Diverseathon”→

She thinks nothing of slaughtering a wolf to capture its prey. But, like all mortals, she fears what lingers mercilessly beyond the forest. And she will learn that taking the life of a magical creature comes at a high price…

Imprisoned in an enchanted court in her enemy’s kingdom, Feyre is free to roam but forbidden to escape. Her captor’s body bears the scars of fighting, and his face is always masked – but his piercing stare draws her ever closer. As Feyre’s feeling for Tamlin begin to burn through every warning she’s been told about his kind, an ancient, wicked shadow grows.

Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator’s daughter, Sidonia. The girl who has grown up by her side and who is as much as sister as a master. There’s no one Nemesis wouldn’t kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.

She must become her.

Now one of the galaxy’s most dangerous weapons is masquerading in a world of corruption and Nemesis has to hide her true abilities or risk everything. As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns that there is something stronger than her deadly force: the one thing she’s been told she doesn’t have – humanity. And, amidst all the danger, action and intrigue, her humanity might be the only thing that can save her, Sidonia and the entire Empire…